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100 Metres

Date

Competition

Cnt.

Cat

Race

Pl.

Result

Wind

27 JUN 2018

Nancy Meeting Stanislas

FRA

C

F

8.

11.50

+0.2

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Who would have thought it? Consider the great names from Jamaica - past and present, men and women - who have graced the 100m. Herb McKenley, Lennox Miller, Don Quarrie, Merlene Ottey, Asafa Powell, Usain Bolt. But none has won a senior global gold medal in the blue riband event of athletics. That historic first moment belongs to Veronica Campbell after her triumph at the 2007 World Championships, in Osaka.

But the recently-married (November 2007) Veronica Campbell-Brown is accustomed to making history. Winner of the first World Youth Championships 100m in 1999, she was also the first to achieve the women’s sprint double at the World Junior Championships, in 2000, and is the first Jamaican woman to hold an Olympic sprint title, having taken the 200m gold at Athens 2004.

The day after Powell had disappointed his homeland by finishing third, behind Tyson Gay (United States) and Derrick Atkins (Bahamas) in the men’s 100m Final in Osaka, Campbell raised the Jamaican flag in the closest of finishes After a long delay for the result to be confirmed – both Campbell and defending champion Lauryn Williams (US) timed 11.01 – she was able to celebrate her latest entry into the national record books.

Adding to Jamaica’s catalogue of near misses, at the 2000 Olympics Tanya Lawrence finished third behind Marion Jones (US) and Katerina Thanou (Greece). The American and Greek have since been discredited for doping offences. At the 2005 World Championships, Michael Frater finished second to Justin Gatlin, another American who was later banned.

All of which left Campbell to make the big breakthrough. Her road to history began in Trelawny, the parish which has produced many prominent Jamaican athletes, among them Merlene Frazer, Ben Johnson, Michael Green and Bolt. More specifically, it began along the track between the family home and local grocery store. Mum, having identified her daughter’s speed, put it to practical use, setting young Veronica as the automatic timer for dinner.

“I was always the favourite child to be sent to the grocery store to buy groceries because I would do it so quickly,” Campbell recalled. “It was a dirt path and I would run there and back. It wasn’t very far and, if my mum sent me to get some eggs for breakfast, she could put the fat on the fire and know I would be back in time before it burned out. So I have been running from a very tender age.”

Whether it was fetching the eggs or shattering the egos of local boys who thought they could outrun her, Campbell never doubted her ability. “The boys always thought they could beat me, so we would always compete to prove a point, and I always won,” she recalled. “I was around 9 or 10, the boys were maybe 15. There was one particular guy who was an athlete and he always thought he was the fastest but I would always beat him.”

How long did it take him to get the message? “I guess he didn’t get it because he didn’t beat me once and kept coming back,” Campbell said. “I haven’t seen him for many years, so I don’t know where he is.”

Like Gay, the World 100 and 200m champion, Campbell was in Osaka while their coach, Lance Brauman, was in prison on fraud charges. According to Campbell, Brauman continued to set her sessions, coaching by telephone. At the World Championships, Omar Brown, the Commonwealth 200m champion and her fiancé at the time would oversee her workouts. Now Campbell trains under Brauman in Orlando, Florida. Of her relationship with her coach, Campbell said: “I have been working with him for a long time, since my junior college days, so it is a long relationship. He is a great coach and we get along well. His workouts really work for me.”

Campbell is grateful for the inspirational role played by Ottey in her career. “Merlene is a wonderful person, she has always been my hero,” Campbell said. “We communicate on a regular basis. She has always given me good encouragement. I learned about Merlene Ottey when I went to Vere Technical High School. She was a student there and everybody at Vere spoke highly of her.

“My first memory of athletics on TV was the Atlanta Olympics. The women’s 100m was very exciting – Merlene and Gail Devers and that photo-finish was one of the most memorable things of the Olympics.” That photo-finish, to which Campbell refers, resulted in Devers, from the US, taking gold in 10.94, the same time as Ottey, who had to settle for silver.

Campbell has four sisters and five brothers, although she was raised in a split family. “I didn’t grow up with all my brothers and sisters, I was brought up with mum and stepdad,” she said. “It was a small house. My father used to do sports and I have two bigger brothers who used to run track in high school but, apart from them, I am the only one who is an athlete in my family.”

It was from Vere that Campbell went to Barton County College in Kansas, where she met Brauman. Then she went to the University of Arkansas from where she graduated in 2006. Why Arskansas? “When I was trying to decide which university I would go to after leaving junior college I went on a few visits and I was fascinated by the business programme at Arkansas,” she said. “That was one of my reasons for going there then Omar wanted to go there and there were other Jamaicans there. I wanted to go somewhere where I would feel at home away from home.”

Campbell has won four Olympic and five World Championships medals. They include not only her 100m triumph in Osaka but the 200m title at the Athens Olympics She will defend this title in Beijing but, after finishing fourth in the Jamaican trials, she was named only as reserve for the 100m. Naturally, she is also included in the 4x100m squad.

Brown and Campbell were married in Montego Bay. Guests included Gay, Ottey and Prime Minister Bruce Golding. The newlyweds share a number of interests away from the track. They play each other at golf and bowling. When it comes to spending her winnings, Campbell says that her only real indulgence is her collection of Louis Vuitton handbags.

Campbell added: “I have not fully maximised my potential in this sport so I am just working hard and looking forward to the future. Hopefully, I can create some more history before the end of my career. I just want to be the best I can be, whatever that is.”